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WALTHAM FOREST: Council admits it destroyed books

8:36am Thursday 29th November 2007

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TENS of thousands of library books have been destroyed in the past two years - but Waltham Forest Council says it does not know how many it had in the first place.

The borough has now admitted the number of library items fell 239,344 between 2005 and March 2007, as we reported last week, despite first telling us our report was innacurate.

Many titles and other items disappeared in a mass cull of unused and outdated books.

Last year staff removed all items which had not been borrowed for five years, and this year they got rid of books which had not been borrowed in three years.

Reference books were dumped if they were out of date or are now available online, such as the Encyclopedia Brittanica.

Library campaigner Janet Wright said: "That's pretty horrific. We've got them bang to rights. They've lost lots of books."

Library worker Lyndon Holmes said many of the eventually destroyed books had not been lent because they had been in storage.

"When I used to work at Leytonstone Library, we had three floors of reserve stock and that's now gone. I know there were books upstairs in St James's Street Library for five or six years, we just had nowhere to put them. We were waiting for a stock policy which never came."

He said librarians, who no longer exist in the service, were too busy serving the public because of a lack to staff to work on stock control and the service used to store rare, valuable and out-of-print books which were often sent to other libraries, including the British Library.

A council spokesman said fewer books went missing than appeared on paper because the original figures were "enormously innaccurate".

During a full stock take in March this year, 109,099 items were wiped from the list because they could not be found.

He added: "We can confirm that all books disposed of were recycled at the Edmonton facility. None were burned. We realise this was poor practice, but we are now back on track and have a properly updated catalogue."

Speaking about the recent £10 milion investment in libraries, the council's cabinet member for leisure, arts and culture, Cllr Geraldine Reardon said: "Residents have access to better facilities, more items for borrowing and a service that is specifically tailored to their needs. We are committed to improving our services, not destroying them," she said.

LIBRARY campaigners said the affair of the missing books was "a scandal" and pledged not to let the matter drop.

Caroline Molloy, of the St James Street Library Campaign, said the waste of books was outrageous.

"No-one asked us, the Waltham Forest residents who have paid for these books through our taxes, if these books should be culled and the decision was taken by people who are not themselves librarians.

"These books were vital to us and our children," she said.

Campaigners spent months digging out information from council records and demanding to know where the books had gone - but to no avail.

They asked questions in community council meetings and put them to senior officers, libraries cabinet member Cllr Geraldine Reardon and leader Cllr Clyde Loakes.

A council spokesman said neither politicians nor officers could be expected to answer such detailed questions at public meetings without warning.

Another prominent library defender, Janet Wright, said: "We just get the run-around. They change their story every two minutes and they don't seem to have a clue what's going on."

Ms Molloy said campaigners welcomed the breakthrough.

"The St James's Street Library Campaign feels vindicated by the council's climb down, their admission that there has been a massive cull of books over the past two years, and its admission that the books culled have been sent to Edmonton incinerator and recycling plant."

* The St James Street Library Campaign is holding a demonstration on Saturday, December 8, outside the library at the top of Coppermill Lane, Walthamstow, at 2pm.

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Walthamster, E17 says...
10:10am Thu 29 Nov 07

This is heart-breaking: books dumped as waste paper. Why didn't the council sell them off at 10p each, or even pile them on tables at libraries for people to help themselves?

The books had to be driven to the dump, so why not to a charity shop, which would have been closer? The only possible reason is that the council wanted to keep its destruction of public assets a secret.

As we've seen from recent investigations: cronyism, incompetence, spectacular bad planning, millions of pounds squandered while real services are cut.

Tell us, council leader Clyde Loakes, how many more dirty little secrets is this council hoping to keep?

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William, London says...
10:11am Thu 29 Nov 07

Another far sighted judgement by this abhorrent council - what else would appoint a philistine as 'Cabinet Member for Leisure, Arts and Culture' who is only set on destroying arts and leisure in the borough. Geraldine Reardon - shame on you, and you too, Adolf
Loakes. Better watch my back, Clyde is coming to get me...

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walthamstow lass, Walthamstow says...
10:51am Thu 29 Nov 07

Closing our libraries and throwing away our books?

It is disgusting.

All this talk from Clyde Loakes and the council about strengthening communities and supporting education?

Sounds like empty words to me.

Open up the library you closed, and stop throwing away our books.

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Katherine, Walthamstow says...
11:11am Thu 29 Nov 07

This is so so sad.

This council department is an absolute mess, it's causing so much damage - what are the council going to do about?

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Jonathan Baddeley, Walthamstow says...
12:26pm Thu 29 Nov 07

Horrified. Just horrified.

Getting rid of out of date reference books is perfectly acceptable. But books that hadn't been borrowed? And like another poster says, they could have been put in big boxes and flogged at 10p each for library funds. Or heck, just given to charity shops.

I want everybody to remember this next time we have a council election. They are dragging Walthamstow down.

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Darron, Chingford says...
12:34pm Thu 29 Nov 07

This has to be the worst council for the arts.
I can no longer see a hung council next election, but a Conservative majority. What other way is there, I'm sorry to say.
Almost a quarter of a million books have been destroyed. I agree that they should have been sold off for 10p a book, some even more. Perhaps we could have kept the William Morris Gallery and Vestry House Museum open all week, fully staffed with this money.
This council is not the one I voted to have. This borough is not the one I grew up in. No cinema, fewer libraries, fewer books, well, what is going next?

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Turpin, Epping Forest says...
12:36pm Thu 29 Nov 07

Cllr. Loakes seems to be running Waltham Forest like Derek Hatton ran Liverpool. Council employees, paid to travel around the borough wasting resources with the sole intention of gathering up books, tossing them into Council vehicles and sending them for destruction.

Putting aside the morality of burning books this was wanton waste. Failure to even employ any effort to sell the unwanted stock and recover costs. Failure to even offer the stock to charities for relocation or disposal.
Words are what empower us Cllr. Loakes. Is there something you are afraid of?

Turpin

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John, Hoe Street says...
1:15pm Thu 29 Nov 07

Two questions:

How many valuable books were amongst those destroyed?

Second question:

Did all the books actually get recycled. Perhaps an Antique's Roadshow in the Borough may reveal a windfall of rare books fallen of the back of a lorry.

I think the libraries need a full audit sooner rather than later.


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mung, E17 says...
1:19pm Thu 29 Nov 07

I always assumed that there must be some more sophisticated policy of 'weeding' books than just those that hadn't been borrowed in 3 years. If a student wants to get that book out only once every 3 years - so what? Does that make it worthless? What about when the tv adaption makes that classic book popular again? This is why libraries like leytonstone and st james used to have reserve stock, which it sounds like has now all gone, along with the librarians to manage it.
Though i agree it would have been better to sell or give books away, than to destroy them, it would be better still (and surely a duty on the council) to protect books, including rare and valuable ones, for the use of everyone in the borough. We paid for them in once already - why should we have to pay for them again to read them?!

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kal, Walthamstow says...
1:30pm Thu 29 Nov 07

There is so much wrong with the council's thinking here.
So the books were destroyed because they hadn't been borrowed. But they couldn't be borrowed because they weren't on the shelves. And of course they weren't on the shelves cause there's no room for shelves with all the cushions and computers and in the multi-use space that used to be a library, let alone the perfectly good building at St James St that was full of shelves crying out for more books.
And in any case, not stocking some books because they weren't borrowed is like saying we won't put any decent documentaries or quality drama on TV because more people watch Big Brother. The books should be available. And when they need a cull (because of all the fabulous new stock they've bought (yeah right) they should publish a list of all titles for at least a month before so that anyone who wants to borrow, or even buy, the books can.

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mdj, e10 says...
1:30pm Thu 29 Nov 07

When the Audit Commission gave their lukewarm 1-star appraisal of LBWF's cultural provision this autumn, did they know about this, or about Mrs Lee's nepotistic promotion?
Well, they soon will!
One book I know is gone is out of print, and on Amazon for £200!Another, a multi-volume law encyclopaedia is £5,000 new, and several hundred pounds even when several years old.This is our property these malignant vandals have destroyed.Surely this is a police matter?

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Penelope Purchase, Kent says...
1:39pm Thu 29 Nov 07

As a prior resident of Walthamstow, Leyton and Leytonstone, all I can say is that 20 years ago, I saw this coming and guess what I moved out because of the incompetence of this borough.
To destroy books, especially reference books, is a "criminal" act. Perhaps Cllr. Noakes is illiterate? Perhaps a book was thrown at him in his school days? Him and his cronies will regret their actions in the end and hopefully the borough will reject him as an incompetent, illiterate, moron?

What bottom of what barrel did Waltham Forest have to scrape to get these so called Councillors into office?

If I were to die tomorrow and the only way to save me is to move back to Walthamstow, I would rather die.

Maybe and hopefully these crass idiots could be given another position in the council - sweeping the streets because that it seems is about their level of intelligence.

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Mr nice guy, London says...
1:45pm Thu 29 Nov 07

I'll put money on it that none of the book were lslamic one's cos they know if muslims found out that happened there would be big trouble anyone else it don't matter.

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steven, Dulwich says...
5:02pm Thu 29 Nov 07

I cannot see why residents are shocked at the actions of a council that seems to regard anything other than right on contemporary culture as elitist and so needing destruction. Thas why I moved away

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Chris, Essex says...
6:43pm Thu 29 Nov 07

It really hurts to know that this is a Council that is controlled by Labour - it is a complete shambles. The only thing it is good at is feathering its own nest and smarmy hypocrisy.
I think chickens - a bloody great flock of 'em - will come home to roost at the next election.
And if Loakes is a candidate at any general election I shall do my damndest to make sure that that constituency really knows about his track record.

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Researcher, E17 says...
7:00pm Thu 29 Nov 07

This must not be the end of this investigation.

Action should be taken against those responsible.

Where does the buck stop? With Councillor Geraldine Reardon or her predecessor as Cabinet member for culture, Councillor Naz Sarkar? Or with Clyde Loakes, elected leader of the council?

Or with the council officers? At the top of the relevant directorate, the executive director of Adult and Community Services is Mimi Konigsberg. She is responsible for housing and adult social services too, so the person directly in charge of culture is the head of Culture and Leisure, Clive Morton. Next one down is the head of Libraries, Museum and Gallery, Lorna Lee, whose promotion in breach of council policy has also been uncovered.

The council's dishonesty and impropriety has now been spotlighted by a series of investigations. The council has done its best at every stage to hinder these investigations, by delaying, evading questions, giving misleading answers, issuing wrong information and sometimes refusing to answer at all.

Someone, finally, has to be held accountable and penalised. Otherwise, there's no sanction against any kind of wrong-doing. They can simply shrug it off and carry on as before.

This undermines any semblance of local-government democracy. It must not be allowed.

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John Crompton, north London says...
9:38pm Thu 29 Nov 07

You would think the Council could have waited until 2008 to do this - after all that is the 75th anniversary of the burning of books in Berlin which were deemed to fall outside what the authorities felt the populace should be reading.

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Keith, Walthamstow (Bell) says...
10:04pm Thu 29 Nov 07

What else could you expect from this council which hides behind the secretive cabinet dealings. The story has taken over a year to break and all that time the cabinet culture person has sat on the information. What a truly despicable act and surely one without precedent. How could she undertake such a move during her tenure of office. Is she completely without compassion to children of whom many other women have brought into this world. Should she not now do the decent thing and resign and do penance.

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gms, Walthamstow says...
12:13am Fri 30 Nov 07

This is an absolute disgrace. Our libraries are so run down it is not surprising the books are not being borrowed. If you go to our libraries looking for text books the shelves are empty. They would rather burn the books than keep the shelves stocked.

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AS, Walthamstow says...
12:09pm Fri 30 Nov 07

I don't think we can rely on either Councillors or responsible council officers to do any "decent thing" here. Councillors can be voted out, but let's not let the council officers get away with this. Breach of duty? Criminal charges? Time to get the lawyers after them!

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whovotedfortheselabo urcrooks?, Walthamstow says...
12:59pm Fri 30 Nov 07

I hope all the fools who voted this Labour council in are satisfied - as if the 10 years of New Labour/Labour corruption, cronyism and civil rights abuses were not enough to get the message into your thick heads, now this despicable excuse for a council has turned to 'destroying' books (please don't give them an inch on this - destroying books and burning books - there is no difference) - this is both an electoral issue and a legal issue - I will certainly support any legal moves to be taken against the parties responsible for this outrage - I want to know what exactly the Liberal Democrat councillors (who I voted for) have done about this, and how complicit they have been in scandal after scandal in Waltham Forest (such as the William Morris Gallery/Vestry House fiasco, the plan to 'force' us all to recycle, on pain of hefty fines (whose pockets will these fines line? - congestion charge anyone?), and the presence of mobile CCTV cameras all over the borough!?! (I wonder how many of you know that your every move is now literally being recorded and watched by the same people who have turned to 'destroying' books as their answer to a cultural policy?) - I haven't heard the Lib Dems making enough noise about any of these issues - what exactly are they doing snuggled up to Labour? Any opposition worth its salt would have walked out by now given the degree of corruption being displayed in Waltham Forest council. Like so many others, it looks like I have no choice now but to vote Tory (I certainly never thought I'd be saying that) - just you wait until the next election comes around Councillors - you are all going to get the bloody kicking you deserve ... and as for any councillors or Labour party stooges who come knocking at my door ... I've got the fava beans and the glass of Chianti on standby

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Walthamster, E17 says...
4:27pm Fri 30 Nov 07

Could the Lib Dems explain their position?

Every year the Tory group invites the Lib Dems to take power, as the leading partner in a LibDem/Tory coalition. Every year the Lib Dems turn it down. They say they're satisfied with being the junior partner in coalition with the Labour group, in charge of a couple of portfolios. But why don't they want the real power that's being offered to them?

In the past I would have accepted that Labour's principles make it the Lib Dems' natural allies. But traditional Labour principles such as democracy and equality seem alien to the current Labour group. I have not known a worse council, of any political colour.

Being Labour's minions may satisfy today's Lib Dems, but no one else is looking satisfied. If the Lib Dems don't actually want power, I'm sure the votes will be glad to oblige in the enxt election.

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:-), E17 says...
5:13pm Fri 30 Nov 07

I am completely uninvolved in the internal politics of LBWF but I am a library user. Recently I have been nothing but impressed and satisfied with the service I have received from Walthamstow libraries. Every time I've searched for a book I've found it, it has got to the library I want to pick it up from and I've received a text message to my mobile phone telling me that it is ready to collect. I can search the catalogue from my home computer, reserve and request items, renew books that I have out on loan etc, etc. Due to an inter library loan scheme I can get books from other libraries in London and not have to wait for my local library to order a new copy and then wait until the budget allows for it to be purchased, a fantastic system.
Well done to all people involved in making this system so easy and convenient to use. Many thanks.

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Chris, Essex says...
6:40pm Fri 30 Nov 07

Dear Smiley face (:-) that is how it should be and I can do the same things with my library system. But that does not take away the admitted fact that a large number of books of unknown value have disappeared to Edmonton for re-cycling which may mean being pulped or being burned.
I am familiar with libraries who conspicuously allow the public to buy any books who are assessed by librarians to be surplus to requirements but nothing like that seems to have happened in Waltham Forest.
Maybe you would have been able to find the book of of choice in WF rather than get it via an inter-library loan

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mdj, e10 says...
8:43pm Fri 30 Nov 07

Are you angry with how your council is being run into the ground by self-serving apparatchiks?
Contact antiscrap@googlegrou
ps.com to be kept informed about grassroots people's protests. See our stand on Sunday pm in the St Mary's Welcome Centre, W'stow village Centre

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Caroline, says...
4:41pm Sat 1 Dec 07

also, check in to www.stjamesstlibrary
.wordpress.com
for the latest library updates and details of our day of fun and protest next sat (8th) outside st james st library.

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Caroline, walthamstow says...
6:51pm Sat 1 Dec 07

the sorry tale of st james library and waltham forest libraries destruction of books has now broken into the national press - see http://stjamesstlibr
ary.wordpress.com/20
07/12/01/st-james-li
brary-mess-hits-nati
onal-newspaper/

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leyton resident, e10 says...
9:38pm Sat 1 Dec 07

same council and cllr,s who supported the shamed ex cllr Grell.......That says it all.

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Walthamster, E17 says...
8:32pm Sun 2 Dec 07

I'm glad you appreciate the efforts of our beleaguered library staff, :-). They're doing an excellent job under increasingly difficult circumstances.

You're lucky in not being an average library user, who wants to browse rather than ordering specific books, or a parent trying to interest your children in reading. Unlike many library users, you have a home computer and a mobile phone, which help you use the system.

The way you use libraries works for you, and that's great. You are as entitled to public libraries as everyone else in the borough.

Sadly, the people who are most disadvantaged by the cuts, the closure of St James Street library and the reduction in numbers of books on the shelves are those who were most disadvantaged to start with.

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Chris, Essex says...
6:12pm Mon 3 Dec 07

Walthamster, thanks for pointing that out.
I can remember being one of that group a long time ago

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Margaret, Walthamstow says...
7:32pm Mon 3 Dec 07

I think we should be granted a rebate on our (much too high) council tax - the Council has destroyed a valuable resource and prevented hundreds of local people from getting a better self -education.

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Tom, Walthamstow says...
10:31pm Sun 9 Dec 07

What do you want to happen to the books after they won't sell and charity shops won't take them because they're out of date?

The few books that no-one wants have to be dosposed of. We don't want kids using out of date curriculum books - whats the point of keeping a 1986 Atlas?!!!

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what?!?, st James Street says...
11:16pm Sun 9 Dec 07

Tom, with all due respect, have you been paying any attention at all? I'd suggest you go back and read the the article and comments again. The problem is not that 'some' out-of-date books have been destroyed (though argueably this is also unethical) - most people would agree, I think, that where educational books, for example, have been superceded excess copies might have to be destroyed or recycled (though we should always have access to at least one copy!) - this is clearly not what we have seen here though - hundreds of thousands of books have been destroyed in secret - we have not seen any effort to sell these books, to offer them to charity shops, or to offer them for free to the public - we are talking about a disgraceful abdication of public duty by the council and its representatives, about a cover-up of this action, and about an arrogant and abusive administration that has shown repeatedly that it has no respect for the community or the people in it - come on Tom, 239,344 books is not 'a few books that no-one wants'. As to what the point is of keeping a 1986 atlas is, that should be obviously clear - all (educational and other) books have a historical value, in that they show the respresentation of the world as it was at a given time - if you think this has no value today, just think how we would have fared if every time a new idea was published all those it disagreed with or altered or superceded were destroyed? I'd suggest, rather than a 1986 atlas (though that might bring us back to a time, bad-and-all as it was, when we hadn't become a near totalitarian state) that you read 1984 by George Orwell where, amongst other things, there is indeed a Ministry of Truth to rewrite history and language whenever the likes of Waltham Forest council wanted something erased or destroyed - then ask yourself what the point of keeping a 1986 atlas is

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Gary Potter, Leyton -poor us!!!! says...
11:13am Thu 13 Dec 07

]Last night a group of us went to the council chamber whilst a council meeting was in progress, we sat in the public gallery, as time went on we all got up and sang at the top of our voices to these pathetic morons, we were asked to stop or we would be removed, instead these lame weak pathetic idiots called councillors all got up and walked out of the chambers as they could not bear to hear the truth on how we the walthamforest public are sick and tired of this corrupt biast anti cultural council. I hate to say it but we must get Labour and the pathetic liberals out of the council and to do this we will have to vote conservative (ooch) but it will be worth it just to see these creeps out of OUR COUNCIL. Please support us in any way you can

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